2.
What did big Ag knew? Did the government knew about how the grain market works? Surprisingly enough, no. <ul><li>Tortilla is a staple food in Mexican society. The average Mexican household consumes about 1 kg (2 lb) of tortilla daily. </li></ul><ul><li>50% of Mexico is below the poverty line, which means that their minimum wage is about $50 pesos per day (US$4.5). </li></ul><ul><li>In the beginning of 2006, several tortilla stores around the country increased their prices to almost 150%, claiming that the rise in price of &quot;corn&quot; was the cause for the increase. In April of 2006, President Calderon accepted an offer from Big agrifood (Maseca, Cargill, etc) companies to settle the price of tortilla to $8.5 per kilo. From last year at $6.0, that is still almost a 30% increase. </li></ul>

3.
There are two different methods to make tortillas…For starters, 1 Kg of corn is not 1 Kg of tortilla <ul><li>If the tortillas are derived from flour.. </li></ul><ul><li>*1 kg of Corn does not translate to 1Kg of Tortilla, but to 1.2 Kg of corn flour after calcium is added. Once baked into tortilla, 1 Kg of corn transforms into 2 Kg of tortilla because water is added; therefore, increasing weight. </li></ul><ul><li>If the tortillas are derived from corn (or nixtamal)... </li></ul><ul><li>*1 kg of corn becomes 2.4 Kg of tortilla after calcium, water is added, and in difference to corn flour, is not refined and retains most of its fiber. </li></ul>

4.
There are two different methods to make tortillas…For starters, 1 Kg of corn is not 1 Kg of tortilla <ul><li>Therefore, if the price of corn from July 06' was only $1.8 per kg, and the price of corn in January 07' was $3.5 per kg, then the difference is an increase of $1.7 per kg and if we divide this by $2.4 (considering that we take out $0.10 because of the increase in natural gas). The impact of the increase in the price of 1 kg corn should had only been $0.71 kg of tortilla not $2.5 kg. </li></ul><ul><li>Big Ag understood the market and gave President a “solution” to this problem. Sadly, this is home economics every housewife in Mexico that bakes tortillas or buys them understand these figures perfectly. </li></ul>